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When the Swedish Pirate Party was founded in early 2006, the majority of the mainstream press were skeptical, with some simply laughing it away. But they were wrong to dismiss this political movement out of hand. Today, the Pirate Party accomplished what some believed to be the impossible, by securing a seat in the European Parliament.

With 99.9% of the districts counted the Pirates have 7.1 percent of the votes, beating several established parties. This means that the Pirate Party will get at least one, but most likely two of the 18 (+2) available seats Sweden has at the European Parliament.

I don’t think Europe’s niche political parties are really analogous to our (mostly) more general policy parties here in Canada and the US, but it does show what an important force the “copyleft” movement has become. This win may mirror the success of Green parties in Europe long before environmental policy was taken seriously in North American politics. Our own parties should take notice.

UPDATE (2009-06-09): It looks like the Pirate Party will have one seat in the EP, with a second seat only if the Lisbon Treaty passes.